10 Hidden Details You Never Noticed In Rock Songs
2. Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith
By the time Aerosmith got around to making Toys in the Attic, they had finally started to hit their stride. After years of being billed as a second rate Rolling Stones, this record shot everything back at the critics' faces, with Sweet Emotion being the strongest hook on the record. Once you dig a bit deeper though, there might be a few in-jokes hidden behind the guitar licks.
During the breakdown before the choruses, most of the percussion is dominated by backwards loops, which create that signature sucking sound that the track is known for. In the process of making the loop though, Steven Tyler decided to have some fun with some backwards recording, which he called an ode to their past manager Frank. Since this guy had signed them to a new record deal that they weren't particularly happy with, the backwards message is a sarcastic "Thanks, Frank," with Tyler clearly a bit salty about the way the deal went down.
Out of all the details on here, this is probably the toughest to spot, considering you would actually need to put the entire record on reverse and single out the track to truly catch it. Even though this kind of thing would be compared to "devil's music" later, a lot of it was just the result of hurt feelings than anything else.